Africa Higher Education Grantmaking Leverages Google Funds

Published March 31, 2011

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Google announced $5 million in grants aimed, in part, at facilitating improved Internet infrastructure in Nigeria. $500,000 was awarded to the Nigeria ICT Forum, which runs the Bandwidth Consortium. The Consortium was set up with support from MacArthur and aims to bring vastly expanded Internet bandwidth capacity and capability, at approximately one-third the cost, to academic institutions on the continent. The effort grew out of MacArthur's role in the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, a $440 million investment by seven American foundations, which strengthened 65 institutions of higher education in nine countries.

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